Abstract

Background

In the past decade, the proportion snacking has increased. Snack foods consumed are
predominantly not nutritious foods. One potential venue to increase children’s diet
quality is to offer healthy snack foods and we explored if shaped snack foods would
lead to increased consumption.

Methods

We investigated the consumption of high-fiber snacks (banana bread, pancakes, and
sandwiches) served either in normal (round, square) or shaped (heart, hands, animals)
form to preschoolers 2–5 years old attending a local child care center (n = 21). The
9 weeks long, prospective, cross-over intervention study was designed to expose each
child repeatedly to each snack in each shape (4 times per snack). Snacks were served
as morning or afternoon snack and caretakers’ reports were used to account for the
child’s consumption of a meal preceding the study snack (breakfast or lunch).

Results

There was no significant difference in snack consumption between the shaped and normal
snacks. However, the mean energy intake from snacks was significantly greater for
Caucasian children compared with Asian children. Further, Asian children consumed
much less banana bread than the other two snacks. Overall, children who had not eaten
breakfast or lunch prior to the morning or afternoon snack ate significantly more
calories from the snacks (84.1 kcal, p-value < 0.0001).

Conclusion

Findings of this study confirm previous research that the shape of the foods does
not affect snack consumption in children. However, we also report two unexpected findings:
a) the strong interaction between ethnicity and snack consumption and b) that Asian
children consumed much less banana bread than Caucasian children. The role of children’s
ethnic background profoundly affects snack preference and must be considered in the
study of children’s eating behaviors and in interventions to promote healthy eating
habits.